Doolittle Raiders to speak at Air Force Academy

3/13/2006 - U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. (AFPN) -- Two aviators who brought World War II to the Japanese mainland, and the daughter of the mission’s leader, will speak at the Air Force Academy March 14.

Retired Cols. Bill Bower and Dick Cole, along with Jonna Doolittle-Hoppes are the speakers for a lectinar here sponsored by the Academy’s history department.

On April 18, 1942, 80 volunteer bomber aircrews led by then-Lt. Col. James Doolittle launched 16 B-25 Mitchell medium bombers from the USS Hornet, to bomb mainland Japan.

Colonel Cole and Doolittle were at the controls of the first bomber to take off from the aircraft carrier. Their destination was Tokyo. They dropped incendiary bombs near an armory, then made a low-level escape west to China, bailed out, met up with Chinese forces and returned to friendly territory.

This mission was the first American strike on the Japanese mainland. It also gave America a much-needed morale boost during the early days of World War II, and showed how unprepared the Japanese mainland was for air attacks.

“Nearly every plane, on its approach to Japan, has reported the sighting of naval and merchant vessels, innumerable small fishing craft, and a number of patrol planes,” wrote Colonel Doolittle in his post-strike report. “Yet the Japanese apparently were entirely unprepared for the attack. Either their dissemination of information was faulty or the communication system had broken down completely.

“As we passed over the countryside, farmers in the field looked up and went back to work undisturbed; villagers waved from the streets; a baseball game continued its play; and in the distance, training planes took off and landed apparently unaware of any danger present,” Colonel Doolittle said. “The overall picture is one of inadequate defense. The warning system did not appear to function; interception by fighters was definitely cautious; and anti-aircraft fire, responding slowly, did not reach the intensity one would expect for so important a city as Tokyo.”

The 12th bomber on that raid was flown by Colonel Bowers, and was bound for Yokohama. His crew made their low-level attack at 1,100 feet, bombing Ogura Refinery, two factories, a factory area and then strafing an electric powerhouse.

After the Yokohama strike, Bower turned his bomber east toward China. They then strafed and sank a Japanese weather boat, crossed the China coast, ran out of fuel and bailed out. Local Chinese forces escorted the crew to Chuchow, where they could eventually return home safely.

Not all of the Doolittle Raiders were as fortunate as others. Three were killed during the raid. Five were interned in Russia. Eight became prisoners of war in Japan -- three executed by firing squad and another dying in captivity. Thirteen others would die later in the war.

Today, only 16 of the original 80 raiders remain alive to tell their story about the first American air raid on Japan during World War II.

This is a story that needs frequent re-telling, because the Doolittle Raid was one of the most high impact missions flown against Japan in the early part of World War II, not because of the damage inflicted, but because it forced the Japanese to face the facts, that they were not out of reach, that America could, and would bomb the bejesus right out of them, which meant that they had to devote a greater portion of their military resources to air defense, which meant that much less went to offense in the Pacific where our boys were fighting them tooth and nail.

One of my earliest weighty books (to my young mind) was Ted Lawson's "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo", where Captain Lawson (who piloted the B-25 nicknamed 'The Ruptured Duck') told the story of his part of the Doolittle Raid, which was related in the movie of the same name, with Van Johnson playing Lawson, Robert Mitchum playing Doc White (flight surgeon in another B-25), and Spencer Tracy as Colonel Doolittle. It was released in 1944 and it won an Oscar too.

I heartily recommend it to anyone who has not seen this film, if you can find an original first edition print of the book, you will find that many of the names of the Chinese who assisted the B-25 crews in escaping from the Japanese were blanked out for security reasons, just in case the book made it's way to some Japanese military unit.

Every one of those men were, and remain, heroes in every sense of the word.

IMHO the Doolittle Tokyo raid remains as one of the most audacious counter strikes. Much as I despised FDR, his political skill understood that America needed a bold imaginative attack against the Japanese. He props ed the attack on the Japanese homeland. Problematic at best, the War Dept pondered it, and then an asst. to Admiral King noticed the outline of a carrier deck painted on an airstrip in Norfolk, Va. At the same time a squadron of B-25's flew overhead. The thought was born: Could these long-range land based twin engined bombers possibly take-off from a carrier deck? The question lead to appointing Jimmy Doolittle for the task.

"Once Jimmy was on board FDR's secret plan, a group of Army Flyboys training in Oregon was given the opportunity to volunteer for a 'dangerous mission that would require you to be outside of the United States for a few months' All 140 signed up."

Training through Feb. 1942 the squadron practiced short take-offs at Eglin AF base without knowing that their new commander was the already legendary flayer Jimmy Doolittle. Not until the carrier Hornet had cleared the Golden Gate did the Flyboys know of their intended target.

"Cheers filled the air. " They told us over the loudspeaker and when they said it, it was like you were at a football game and somebody has just kickeda goal in the last second....People went wild....the sailors I saw were jumping up and down like small children.'"The plan called for the carrier group to sail within 400 to 500 miles, launch the 16 Billy Mitchell B-25's and then scoot to Pearl Harbor. The squadron would bomb Tokyo and then fly on to China, the B-25's being too heavy to land on the carrier deck.

200 miles short of the launch point news was received that the carrier group had been spotted with the chance of total surprise perhaps lost. More bad news was to come almost immediately. The weather worsened. The seas now had 30 foot swells and the squadron would face 24 knot headwinds. Zero weather conditions

The crews had to time their take-offs so that the bombers reached the end of the deck as the carrier reached the peak of its travel on the waves. Doolittle took off first. Land based bombers launching from a carrier in thirty foot seas, just amazing.

The carrier and flight crew cheered as Doolittle was airborne and soon the squadron was up. But they launched 600 miles from the mainland of Japan, 200 miles more than planned. It was clear to all that there would not be enoughs fuel to make mainland China.

After the bombing run the wind shifted and then suddenly they were running with tail winds.

Jimmy Doolittle recalled, "Fortunately the Lord was with us. What had been a headwind slowly turned into a tailwind of about 25 mile per hour and eased our minds about ditching"

The same storm that had made the mission seem impossible at take-off also provided the provident cloud cover that hid them from the Japanese defenses and then helped them on the way out.

The quotes are from "Flyboys" by James Bradley. Terrific book about the air war in the Pacific.

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